Andrew Talansky Marks His Triathlon Debut With A Win

Andrew Talansky is a familiar name to anyone who keeps up with the world of professional cycling. The American 28 year old Cannondale-Drapacprofessional cyclist took up cycling at the age of 17 and quickly leapt to the top of the sport.

Growing up swimming and running cross country, Talansky found a passion in cycling and won the collegiate national championships his freshman year in college. Realizing his potential he joined the professional circuit and moved to Europe.

After bouncing around a bit he landed on Garmin’s team and became the lead rider. Only a few years after picking up a bike, Talansky finally got a shot at the infamous Tour de France. In 2013 the young American ended up getting 10th in his rookie debut.

Fast-forward to September 2017 when the accomplished cyclist announced he would be retiring from the sport of cycling.

Kona Announcement

Nearly a month after announcing his retirement from cycling, Andrew Talansky announced that he would be pursuing a new professional athletic endeavor in the form of the Ironman Triathlon.

Many elite one-sport athletes have made the switch to triathlon in the past. Some have made it all the way to the top and others have struggled to hold on to their elite card.

Being fairly young for the Ironman distance, the good news is that he has many years to work his way through the ranks. But just exactly how will he end up?

The Big Debut

At the end of October, Talansky entered in a local triathlon as a debut into the sport. He did the Olympic Distance at The Marin County Triathlon and performed as expected. The former pro cyclist came out of the water 10th with a 21 minute 1.5K swim leg.

He then hopped on the bike and did what any former pro cyclist would do – he dominated.

Throwing down a 57:25 bike split and giving himself about a 10 minute lead on the field, Talansky casually ran a 6:21 pace on the 10K run leg to round out the overall win.

The Future

Just from the stats from this triathlon alone, one would conclude that it will be a very long journey if he wants to get anywhere near the top of the Ironman ranks. That swim, while decent, was nothing to write home about.

The bike, while much quicker than the rest of the field was not even close to what he would need to do in order to be a contender.

The run was also extremely slow for someone looking to be at the top of the professional Ironman rankings.

So where will he stack up? Well, it’s hard to tell because that race means absolutely nothing.

The only part of that race that he may have actually tried on was the swim. At least I hope so. Considering he would normally ride that speed on the bike for close to 100 miles or more, I would say the bike split was just him having a good time.

We look forward to watching Andrew this next year as he progresses in the sport of triathlon.

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